Gisele Bündchen suffered from panic attacks in early career: ‘I didn’t even feel like I could share with anyone’

She is one of the most successful models in the world

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Gisele Bündchen is one of the most successful models in the world, but the 38-year-old suffered from debilitating panic attacks in her early career, she has revealed.

Speaking to PORTER magazine, the Brazilian supermodel recalled feeling intensely anxious as her career took off, but she felt she couldn’t tell anyone.

“I thought maybe I don’t have the right, everybody is going through so many difficult things in the world, and I don’t have the right to feel this way,” she explained.

“So I’d suppress it, and the more I suppressed it, the bigger it became.”

In October 2018, Bündchen revealed she'd also experienced suicidal thoughts at the height of her career.

Bündchen landed her first British Vogue cover when she was just 18 years old.

That same year, she fronted high profile campaigns for some of the world’s most esteemed fashion houses, including Missoni, Chloé, Dolce & Gabbana and Versace.

In 2000, she signed a $25m contract with lingerie label Victoria's Secret and was named the world's highest-paid model in 2002 by Forbes, a title she maintained until 2017 when she was overtaken by Kendall Jenner, 22.

Writing in her new memoir, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life, the mother-of-two reflects on how she overcame her mental health issues by changing her lifestyle, which included parting ways from her boyfriend of five years, Leonardo DiCaprio.

She cut out sugar, caffeine and alcohol and began practicing yoga.

“No longer numbing myself with smoking, drinking and too much work, I was becoming more and more aware of things that I’d chosen not to look at,” she explains before implying that DiCaprio did not share her desire to make such changes.

“Was I alone in wanting to do some serious soul-searching while he stayed the same? In the end, unfortunately, the answer was yes.”

Pictured with Leonardo DiCaprio at the Academy Awards in February 2005. (Getty Images)

The couple parted ways in 2005 and Bündchen began dating her now-husband, NFL player Tom Brady, the following year.

In her memoir, the model describes Brady, whom she married in 2009, as “someone you can count on”.

“I love my husband – and most of all, I trust him,” she writes.

“With Tom, who provides our family with a stable foundation, I’m able to create a home.”